All The News That Clicks
Newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines are scrambling to boost their Web presence.
But traditional advertisers are starting to catch up, and Web publishers are scrambling to respond to their requests. Each type of medium is facing a unique set of issues. Newspapers suffer from shrinking circulations and the loss of lucrative real-estate and help-wanted classifieds. Television networks struggle with the rapid adoption of digital video recorders, which let people skip commercials. Free radio is dealing with competition from satellite radio and its more than 6 million paid subscribers.
Each one is turning to the Internet, where their advertisers increasingly want to be--and where they demand an answer to the question "Is the ad working?" says David Hallerman, analyst at eMarketer. That question is difficult to answer from a network television spot, and easier to answer from placing an ad on a page where someone has specifically searched for a product. "Online is absolutely an effective vehicle for us," says Michael Farello, vice president of marketing for the U.S. consumer business of Dell Computers, which spent $119.5 million online in 2004, according to TNS Media. "It's easy for us to measure--we can see where the clicks are coming from."
Relevance. At Dow Jones, which owns the Wall Street Journal , Barron's, and other news properties, being able to deliver highly targeted ads has been key to its online operations. It uses tracking technology to deliver relevant ads to readers wherever they are on their sites. If a reader searches for news about a specific type of car, for instance, Dow Jones tags that person as someone interested in buying a car. It will serve up auto ads, even if the reader moves on to read a story about healthcare or economics. Dow Jones acquired financial news site MarketWatch.com, in which CBS had an interest, for $528 million.
Even with such detailed information, says Gordon Crovitz, president of electronic publishing for Dow Jones, educating advertisers about the nascent medium remains a challenge. "I think we have overcome much of the damage done during the dot-com bubble," he says. "The challenge for publishers is to accelerate the process of helping advertisers understand the full value of online advertising."
Some advertisers understand it better than others, and they know what to ask for in their negotiations with media salespeople. Integrated packages are becoming increasingly popular among both publishers and advertisers, enabling companies to take advantage of promotional opportunities across various types of media outlets. During the NCAA basketball tournament in March, Nissan promoted its Frontier truck through ESPN's sports bars, on its website, on the TV network, and in ESPN magazine. At the Sporting News , advertisers are promoting in print, online, and on the radio. "The more educated our salespeople are across platforms, the better we are at meeting their needs," says Jason Kint, general manager of its online operations. "Our salespeople have to be able to talk in all languages."
At the Weather Channel, advertisers want integrated packages in order to maximize their exposure to weather watchers. Weather.com 's Peter Green says the company has learned that people watch the cable channel in the morning and check weather.com while at work, which helps it to customize a holistic strategy that works for advertisers.
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